Man shot during protests in Charlotte has died

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Charlotte police say the man shot in the head during Wednesday night’s protests near a downtown hotel has died.

Police spokesman Keith Trietley says in a news release that 26-year-old Justin Carr died Thursday at the hospital.

Carr was shot as protesters clashed with police in riot gear lined arm-in-arm protecting the Omni Hotel about 8:30 p.m. Wednesday. City officials say Carr was not shot by an officer.

Police Chief Kerr Putney says the detectives are determined to find who fired the fatal shots. No arrests have been made.

The protests stemmed from the police shooting of a black man, Keith Lamont Scott.

Violent protests erupt in Charlotte

After violent protests raged for the second night in Charlotte over the police shooting of a black man, the city’s police chief told reporters Thursday he has no intention of releasing dashcam video of Keith Lamont Scott’s shooting “to the masses.”

Asked whether there was a time at which the public could expect to see it, Chief Kerr Putney said there should be no such expectation.

“Transparency’s in the eye of the beholder,” he said. “If you think we should display a victim’s worst day for public consumption, that is not the transparency I’m speaking of.”

Putney warned that video will not provide “definitive visual evidence” that Scott pointed a gun at police officers. But other evidence and witness accounts support the police narrative that officers opened fire only after Scott refused to drop his weapon, he said.

Justin Bamberg, an attorney for the family of Scott, who was fatally shot by Charlotte police officer Brentley Vinson, said Scott’s relatives viewed the footage Thursday evening at Charlotte-Mecklenburg police headquarters. He would not comment on the family’s reaction.

Scott didn’t own a gun or habitually carry a gun, the family has told their attorneys, Bamberg said.

At the request of Scott’s family, Mecklenburg County District Attorney R. Andrew Murray has asked the State Bureau of Investigation to investigate Scott’s death, according to his office. State law requires the prosecutor to reach out to the bureau if the family requests it.